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OHSAS 18001: Is it an effective health &
safety risk management tool?
By David Powley - DNV Certification
David Powley, of DNV certification, presents the
case for the health & safety management system specification, OHSAS
18001.
In 1999 representatives of the leading Certification Bodies (CB’s),
or Registrars as known in the USA, met to develop a specification for
management systems for health and safety. In effect they ended up with
a specification looking remarkably similar to that for environmental management
systems, ISO 4001. As it happens this was not such a bad thing. Why?
OHSAS 18001, as it was ultimately called, borrowed from ISO 14001 all
of the necessary ingredients that would satisfy the three qualitative
principles of risk management – these being:
1. Identify and assess significant risks
2. Manage the significant risks
3. Monitor the effectiveness of management of significant risks.
These three principles have been embodied in most of the UK health &
safety law published since the middle of the 1980’s. The specification
meets principle 1 by virtue of requirements to use logical methods to
assess risks and to capture and react to regulatory information. Principle
2 is met by requirements to set objectives and / or have operational control
procedures in place, depending on what the legal drivers are and whatever
the risk assessments produce from meeting principle 1. A variety of checking
activities (e.g. auditing, monitoring etc) are stipulated within the specification
that would meet Principle 3.
On top of the principles of risk management, compliance with OHSAS 18001
demands a relevant policy statement, a management-driven review, arrangements
for ensuring employee competence & awareness, organisational structures
& descriptions, communications processes and a variety of aspects
that aid the auditability of the management system (e.g. documented procedures,
records etc).
It would appear therefore that the specification has integrity. However,
there is some reluctance in accepting the worth of OHSAS 18001, particularly
amongst certain quarters within the health & safety profession. This
is not so much due to the wording and spirit of OHSAS 18001 but more to
do with anticipated inadequacies in the regime for granting certification
to it. This is understandable if one accepts that there have been cases
showing that it is possible to gain certification to ISO 9001 (for quality
management) and ISO 14001 ( for environmental management) where it has
been subsequently proved to be undeserved, although this has been in a
small minority of cases. Nevertheless, any company subscribing to certification
to OHSAS 18001 will want assurance that the whole certification regime
has credibility.
This comes down to the credibility of the CB and how its auditors perform
their audits. It is advisable that the CB chosen should possess an established
track record in health & safety risk management as well as an international
reputation that it protects zealously. On the latter point, nothing concentrates
the mind more for a proud CB than the mere whiff of poor practice and
incompetence. Auditors of a good CB will ensure that certification is
not granted lightly by scrupulously ensuring that the management system
they audit has the capability to deliver regulatory compliance, protect
employees and others affected by the organisation and also that the system
can deliver continual improvement.
Certification to OHSAS 18001 is growing in many industry sectors. Many
companies choose to operate their systems alongside of those for quality
and/or environment for convenience. Apart from employees and others gaining
assurance, there are other parties with an interest in a company being
certified to OHSAS 18001 – the customers. Most of the current certifications
to OHSAS 18001 are driven by customers and in many cases customers see
a supplier’s certification to OHSAS 18001 as a convenient indicator
of safety credentials, particularly at tendering time. This has special
relevance to customers who are compelled to allow suppliers’ employees
to come on to their premises to perform their work (e.g. ‘contractor’
situations).
OHSAS 18001 has all of the ingredients of a health & safety risk
management standard. However the success of a certification regime that
is based on it will depend largely on the thoroughness and integrity of
the audits performed by the Certification Bodies (CB’s). In this
regard, it is the CB’s with the better auditors and valued international
reputations in health & safety that are likely to be the safer options
for selection.
David Powley is a well recognised and highly experienced
integrated management systems Auditor and Trainer with DNV Certification.
He is the author of numerous articles on management systems for
quality, environment and health and safety. DNV Certification is
one of the world’s leading certification bodies/registrars
offering the latest in management systems certification services.
With more than 49,000 certificates issued worldwide, our name evokes
a strong commitment to safety, quality, and concern for the environment.
DNV recently launched Risk Based Certification™, a fresh approach
to auditing. For further information on Risk Based Certification
or any other service DNV offer please visit www.dnv.co.uk/certification
or call 020 7716 6543.
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